A new Ghana–Russia literary exchange programme aimed at promoting indigenous languages, cultural understanding, and literacy among young readers has been launched in Accra.

The initiative was announced during a visit by the President of the World Organization of Writers (WOW), Almukhametova Margarita, who engaged members of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) on areas of literary cooperation.

Speaking at the meeting, the WOW President said the visit was to explore opportunities for translating indigenous Ghanaian literary works into Russian, while selected Russian writings would also be translated into Ghanaian languages.

“We came to engage the Ghana Association of Writers to look at how indigenous Ghanaian writings can be translated into Russian and how indigenous Russian works can also be translated into Ghanaian languages,” she said.

According to her, the main focus of the collaboration is the promotion of literature written in indigenous languages, which she described as critical to preserving culture and strengthening literary development.

“The cooperation we are looking forward to is centred on indigenous language literature,” she explained.

A key component of the initiative is its focus on children’s literature.

The WOW President said starting with young readers is intentional, as early learning plays a crucial role in shaping the future.

“We want to start with children because children’s writing and learning help us lay a strong foundation for the future,” she noted.

She added that the project goes beyond cultural exchange to include language development and its role in Ghana’s broader development agenda, while also strengthening collaboration between Ghanaian and Russian writers.

The President of the Ghana Association of Writers, Dr Camynta Baezie, disclosed that the project will begin in January 2026 and is expected to run for ten years.

“We will begin by selecting a few authors and translating their works, starting with one book at a time, and developing the project gradually over the next ten years,” he said.

“This collaboration gives Ghanaian writers the opportunity to showcase our rich literary heritage to a global audience, while encouraging more writers to produce works in our indigenous languages,” Dr Baezie added.

Organisers say the long-term goal of the initiative is to make literature from both countries more accessible—particularly to students—while promoting cross-cultural understanding through storytelling.